Walk a mile in my shoes...

I have this belief that if people were required to walk a mile in the shoes of a mentally ill person, then somehow there would be more compassion and understanding.  Of course, one can never underestimate the cruelty that people can inflict on other people…but maybe the experience would teach people something.  And here it is.  An attempt to do just that.  http://bit.ly/1606S2O

This simulation of the symptoms of schizophrenia was aimed at people who have contact with those who have the disease or who are caregivers.  Can you imagine what might happen if it was set up for regular people in the community to help battle stereotypes?  Would anybody actually volunteer to go through the experience?  Schizophrenia is a frightening and overwhelming disease to have. And people could not help but be changed by the experience of having the symptoms.  And what if there was a virtual reality machine that could expose people to the feeling of bipolar disease?  Or severe depression?  How would people view the mentally ill at that point?  Would we see an increase in access to treatment?  Would we see more understanding and compassion?  I certainly don’t know the answer to those questions.  But I do know that it would be an interesting experiment.

When people view mental illness as a weakness, they are essentially making a judgment about the worth of people who have an illness.  Which is as mindless as equating other health issues with worth, such as cancer or diabetes.  Illness is illness.  Period.  Having an illness means nothing about character.  It doesn’t necessarily indicate you aren’t taking adequate care of yourself.  It doesn’t indicate you are stupid.  And it certainly doesn’t indicate that you are a bad person. 

In remembering Maxine, I am very aware of how the worth of a person gets all tied up in how well we recognize that this is an illness.  As a child, I really did view her disease as something she had chosen.  This is where much of my anger came from.  I know other people came from the same place.  I even remember one family member trying to teach Maxine a ‘lesson’ one time.  About what, I don’t remember.  But there seemed to be little comprehension that there was a disease state going on.  And this occurred with a person who had a scientific background.  So, I was mystified about how they expected to ‘teach a lesson’ to a person suffering from a disease in their brain.

In working with my clients, I had learned by that time that this is a disease.  And so I was more compassionate than I had been with Maxine.  I took blame out of the equation and focused on what they could accomplish by learning skills.  And I was more understanding when they couldn’t learn the skills that I wanted them to learn.  I was also able to be more sympathetic when they behaved as though they had a mental illness.  Knowledge is a powerful thing.  It leads to compassion and love.  And can move mountains when you are dealing with a person who has mental illness.  What do you think?  Would people ‘get it’ if they had the experience of walking a mile in your shoes?